POTTSTOWN >> Six years after eliminating the borough’s shade tree commission, borough council may look at bringing it back.
The issue, not on the agenda for Monday’s council meeting, was raised by council Vice President Sheryl Miller.
She said a large branch had come down last week on Second Street, damaging power lines, and a borough crew had been sent to clean it up Monday.
And the effort got her thinking “maybe its time to revisit and reconsider reinstating the shade tree commission,” she said.
“We all know there were certain species of tree that were not appropriate to be planted by electrical lines, by sewer lines or by light posts, however that whole vista has been re-worked and now there are smaller species of tree that keep our town beautiful, but there’s no funding to take care of the problems,” said Miller.
“You know, the homeowners are fully responsible for the costs of taking down the trees, and sometimes, depending on how large they are, that can run into the thousands of dollars,” she said.
Although the shade tree commission had its flaws, “it did assist with some of these costs,” said Miller. “It’s something that I hope council will consider.”
“I like the idea of shade tree commission, but it should be tree removal commission,” said Councilman Dennis Arms.
“I have a lot of elderly residents around me who are having issues with trees and can’t afford to remove them, nor do they want to plant another tree in its place, which is something I totally understand, so it’s something we need to look at,” said Arms.
Borough Council President Dan Weand then asked Arms “so you’re volunteering to work with Councilwoman Miller on that?”
Arms replied “sure.”Mayor Sharon Thomas suggested that instead of a commission, that an “ad hoc committee” be created to address street tree issues.
“I know the shade tree commission ran into its problems, however, I believe an ad hoc committee would streamline the interjection of having additional problems for having an entire separate commission,” she said.
It was six years ago this month that then-borough council voted unanimously to dissolve the existing shade tree commission.
In the months leading up to the vote, people had crowded into the council meeting and at least one of the few shade tree commission meetings to protest the commission’s practices, principally the costs involved in maintaining or removing the increasingly mature stock of street trees and the potential for their roots to infiltrate sewer lines.
Then councilman Jody Rhoads, a constant critic of the shade tree commission, was appointed to the commission for a time before council voted to change the ordinance and effectively disband the commission.
The vote to disband came at the same meeting the then-chairman of that commission, Thomas Hylton, made a presentation warning council of the financial burdens its vote would place on taxpayers and homeowners.
The changes moved responsibility for authorizing the planting of new street trees, or taking down sick or dead trees, the borough manager and Public Works Director Doug Yerger.
The ordinance change “did not address the main problem, which is sidewalks,” or more specifically, the effect of tree roots on sidewalks, Hylton said in 2010 before the vote.
At the time, street trees were maintained by Trees Inc., a non-profit organization which Hylton heads, and they were maintained at no cost to the taxpayers, given that the borough had stopped making contributions to the organization in 2007.
From 2003 to 2007, the borough made annual contributions of $21,000 to Trees Inc. for street tree maintenance.
By law, responsibility for maintaining street trees and removing dead ones lies with the property owner, a responsibility which Trees Inc. sometimes takes on.
In recent years, the organization has spent its own money to do as much street tree maintenance as it can afford, with no financial support from the borough.